First Read is a morning briefing from Meet the Press and the NBC Political Unit on the day's most important political stories and why they matter.What Will Bernie Do?After her victories over the weekend in Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, Hillary Clinton is now just 19 delegates away from hitting the 2,383 magic number of delegates... read more

David French, the conservative writer and lawyer floated by anti-Donald Trump forces as a potential independent presidential candidate in 2016, says he will not mount a White House bid.In an article posted on the National Review's web site Sunday night, French said he opposes both Trump and Hillary Clinton but determined after "serious... read more

Hillary Clinton won the Puerto Rico primary Sunday, edging her even closer to the delegate majority she needs to become the presumptive nominee of the Democratic Party.A total of 60 pledged delegates were at stake in the island primary contest.Many Puerto Rico voters faced long lines and confusion over polling stations, many of which had closed... read more

In an interview with CBS on Sunday, Donald Trump was forced to square how he can hit Hillary Clinton for Libya while previously expressing support for the intervention on humanitarian basis in a video blog in 2011. Finally he said he "was for something, but I wasn't for what we have right now." What's more telling is that... read more

WASHINGTON — A pair of powerful Senate Republicans on Sunday warned Donald Trump to drop his attacks on a Latino judge presiding over a lawsuit against Trump University, joining the widespread rejection of their presumptive presidential nominee's treatment of the federal jurist. A third prominent Republican who also supports Trump urged the... read more

Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee, continued to draw fire over the weekend by doubling down on his comments that U.S. District Court Judge Gonzalo Curiel, the judge presiding over a lawsuit against Trump University, Trump's now-defunct business that is accused of defrauding its customers, cannot possibly render a fair verdict... read more

On "Meet the Press," Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., was supportive of Donald Trump, but was careful not to be too supportive of some of presumptive nominees more incendiary comments.The Senate majority leader told Chuck Todd he "couldn't disagree more" with Trump's recent attacks on the Hispanic judge presiding over... read more

Many Americans know the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico as havens for beach-going vacationers, but both islands will be focused on politics this weekend when voters head to the polls for some of the final contests of the Democratic primary race.The pair of contests will push Hillary Clinton even closer to clinching the Democratic nomination.... read more

REDDING, Calif. — A Republican singled out at a rally by Donald Trump as "my African American" said the episode was "odd," but insisted he was not offended.Gregory Cheadle said he was the man in the crowd pointed out by Trump, who as the presumptive Republican presidential nominee boasted of his support among African-American... read more

Hillary Clinton is on track to be the declared the Democratic Party’s presumptive nominee sometime Tuesday night, when voters in California and five other states cast their ballots. That makes it Bernie Sanders’ last chance to stop Clinton from winning the nomination -- even under the convoluted delegate math favored by his campaign.Winning... read more

As Donald Trump has doubled down on his criticisms of the judge presiding over a lawsuit against Trump University, Latino lawyers and former judges slammed the presumptive Republican presidential candidate for "injecting bigotry," attempting to deflect from issues in the case and trying to make the judge appear unqualified."If a... read more

In less than a week, the Hillary Clinton-Bernie Sanders presidential nomination saga will essentially come to a close in California, a state where Latinos slightly outnumber whites, but have been far fewer of the state's voters.The end is practically written, given that Clinton lacks just 72 delegates to reach the required 2,383 total... read more